Invisible Death

Quicksand

Emilia Ramos waited at the Intensive Care stall at AR&D Medcare. The nurse had been brought to the country as a refugee, since her permanence in St. Mallotts Island, her homeland, was now impossible. She had committed the ultimate crime against the law of the land. She had helped put down the top research lead by the island real owner, the one who was hell bent on either destroying all new mutants in the world or using their mental powers to feed special forces soldiers. Now, Emilia Ramos was a fugitive, and she had a price on her head.

Standing next to the supply cart, waiting for Dr. Fontenelle and the head nurse... she had to remember to call Melissa Bloomenfeld "head nurse", instead of "matron"... Emilia remembered the look of hatred St. Clair had in his eyes when he looked at her. But Dr. Kane had seen it, too, and he invited her to join the departing team back home, promising her a new life, a new name, a new identity... and a new job, where her talents would be appreciated, and her natural sympathy for new mutants wouldn't be a liability, but an asset. And Emilia had accepted the invitation, grateful for not being left behind in St. Clair's hands. The difficult part was saying goodbye to her half-sister, Terra, who had been adamant in her refusal to leave her pack.

"Let them maricóns come," the rat feral had said in her heavily accented Spanglés. "Anyone coming near my pack will be invited for dinner... as a main course."

The island was behind Emilia now; a new life opened itself for her, with new possibilities, new knowledge. And the nurse felt she belonged there, as she had never felt she belonged in her native land before. New mutants, whom she had been taught were monsters were actually people like everybody else, just with a twist they seldom, if ever, used. They went about their business, trying to cope with life as everybody did, studying, working, loving and living. And they had health problems like everybody else had, problems attended to by St. Kat's Hospital, and by AR&D Medcare, where she, Emilia, worked under Head Nurse Bloomenfeld and the doctors. Strange, most doctors were mutants, but not all of them. Many nurses and staff were mutants, but not all of them. Head Nurse Bloomenfeld herself was plain vanilla human.

Of the mutants working at AR&D Medcare, Emilia had noticed they used their powers to enhance their performance as caregivers. The nurses and assistants, for instance, if they were telekinetics, they manipulated the sick with their powers, giving them more comfort than if they were touched by hands. They lifted them clear off the beds, when the linens had to be changed; they turned them gently in midair to bathe them... It was amazing! And what about the doctors? They had the most amazing powers! The anesthesiologist, Dr. Sheridan, he could control involuntary, vegetative brain activity. He could put a person under without any drugs if necessary. And he was so good-looking! There were other doctors, like the woman with X-ray eyes, who worked, of course, in Radiology. And the guy who worked in Pediatrics, the telepath nurse who could make sick children laugh with his antics, while reading their minds to know exactly what they were feeling. Amazing!

But the most amazing of all was the deformed Dr. Fontenelle, with her ugly, but gentle hands, her pronounced hunchback and unstable feet, and her unsettling blue eyes, contrasting with her dark mulatto skin. The way she, as Chief of Staff, dealt fairly with the small squabbles that emerged once in a while between employees, and the way she oriented the doctors when facing many new medical mysteries new mutation entailed.

Now, the hospital seemed to be of a single mind, all their resources directed at the care of one patient, the woman Emilia had seen weeks ago in the Vault, jumping from table to cabinet in a vain attempt to escape her captors. The woman had been rescued, but she wasn't the one Emilia remembered. What had been brought home was broken beyond repair, and Emilia was waiting for the doctor and head nurse to care, one more time, for the woman.